Actions

California teens building ‘smart sensors’ to predict the location of wildfires

By:
KOAA News5

Posted at 8:10 AM, Nov 28, 2018

and last updated2018-11-28 10:10:52-05

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Two California teenagers want to help prevent wildfires by using their expertise in engineering and technology.

High school seniors Aditya Shah and Sanjana Shah are working on building a smart wildfire sensor. They’ve worked for two and a half years on the project, which uses photography to look at the location of wildfire fuels and pairs it with weather data like temperature and humidity to predict where a fire may spark.

“We thought why not use the technology that we have in our generation in order to solve something that terrifies people so frequently,” said Sanjana Shah.

Their prototype uses a stationary camera, but their vision is to use drones to cover large areas or land to pinpoint the areas at highest wildfire risk.

Cal Fire’s research and development team has noticed their work and has been in touch with them about their technology.